Removing fingerboard finish on a cheap bass

[Duarte]

Hello experts

My bass, a gear4music, beat up piece of crap plays and sounds great. I've got the innovation psychoslaps fitted which are a godsend.

The only problem is, as it is such a cheap bass, the fingerboard seems to be made of a light wood (can't tell what exactly) with some kind of black finish on it. There are a couple of dings in the fingerboard, revealing the wood.

These psychoslaps are white, nylon, with a low tension. Since I've been learning to slap, the undersides of the strings are getting coated in this black finish - some of it going all around the string. It rubs off when I'm playing, and feels horrible. I'm pretty sure this isn't just gunk, I think the slapping is just not what the finish is designed to cope with.

So I'm considering just removing the finish. Just a little sandpaper should do it... am I mad? any pearls of wisdom or insults would be appreciated

Cheers
Z

[JoeEvans]

I would be inclined to scrape it off. The best thing is to learn how to use a glass cutter. Cut a strip of glass about 2" wide, the cut it down into pieces about 6" long. When you first cut them they will have a superb scraping edge. Lightly take off very narrow strips of the finish, holding the glass at maybe 70 degrees to the wood. When it feels like it's going blunt, cut a strip off the glass to get a fresh scraping edge. Various videos of this technique on Youtube such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBLdVKmcPw8
Probably good to lightly sand off the fingerboard afterwards.

[ikay]

A word of caution - you'll need to take all the strings off to do work on the fingerboard and there's a high risk that the soundpost will fall over (which will then require a trip to a luthier to install it again). This thread may be of some help: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/259480-taking-all-strings-off-and-keeping-sound-post-in-place/"]http://basschat.co.u...-post-in-place/[/url]

Edited May 16, 2015 by ikay

[Duarte]

Thanks for the advice chaps, will let you know what happens!

[Marc S]

Yes, Ikay is quite right
You risk the soundpost falling over
Beware of this, as without the special tool, you can't get them back into position again

And if you try to re-string it without soundpost in place - BAM!
The tension on the bridge will make the front of the bass cave inwards
apparently....

People recommend putting the bass on its' back while re-stringing
But I think you will need to move the bass about a lot while sanding / planing the fingerboard

Have you got an old set of steel strings you can put on the bass while sanding the neck?
Just a thought - maybe put the bass on its' back, and have maybe 2 old steel strings in place to keep the tension,
while giving you a bit of space to work with? Just a thought - but again, keep the string tension up
and keep the bass on its' back....

The finish which is coming off, is there to help protect the fingerboard too
Though I'm not sure it's doing a good job in this case
So you might want to think about applying something else, in place of the material coming off...

Let us know how you get on anyway mate
... and good luck

[Wonky2]

Duarte, interested to know hiw this went in the end..... More so, what did you use to refinish ?

Im midway through a fairly intensive repairwhich has meant a refinish on fingerboard is necesarry too. The bass, like yours is not a megs expensive one (stentor 1950 bass) and luckily i think the sound post has been glued in as its still in place after much man handling !

Im interested to know what you used to refinish the finger biard and if the rssult was good from a cosmetic point of veiw and also in stopping black rubb off ?

Ive stripped my fb down using sand paper and foam block, came off quite easy too..... Inhave some matt black enamel paint which was closest match to what was on i think ?

Any comments are helpful and welcomed

[mybass]

Hate to add this but getting a new proper job ebony fingerboard fitted would be best all round and of course expensive. But....it may also alter the sound from what you are used to. It appears you have a soft maple or other 'white' wood fingerboard used on low cost DBs that has got some sort of black coating which is obviously wearing or getting knocked away, as it would do. If the indent of the wood is not too bad, applying a damp cloth for a minute or two to the dented area only may help swell the wood out.